The present invention relates to a system for communicating information over a network.
The Internet is an interconnection of individual computer networks that are coordinated to use a compatible data transmission format such as hypertext markup language. The Internet makes available to an end user, or client, a vast number of individual web sites, each having a unique Universal Resource Locator (URL) address by which that site may be addressed.
Historically, any client with a desktop computer and a modem could access the Internet through an Internet service provider (ISP). Once connected through an ISP, clients have available a wide variety of electronic services such as e-mail, along with access to news services, sports and stock tickers, vendors, educational materials, and numerous other resources.
Currently, the Internet is designed so that the client must take the initiative to find the information sought. To this end, the Internet is typically navigated through an interface called a web browser, displayed on a monitor or other device. Through the web browser, an ISP will frequently provide a start page with an assortment of search tools and hypertext links from which the desired web site may be found. Alternately, if the client knows the URL of the page sought, it can simply be typed into the browser.
A navigation system where the client must take the initiative to find the information desired is often referred to as “pull” technology because the client metaphorically pulls the information from the web sites. The advantage of pull technology is its flexibility in adjusting to the instantaneous interests of the client. Pull technology is ideally suited for Internet navigation through a desktop computer or network terminal because the size of the display permits the graphical interface necessary for easy Internet browsing.
With the exponential growth seen in the Internet during recent years, a larger variety of web-enabled devices have become available. Such devices include hand-held devices, alphanumeric pagers, and cell phones. These devices are not ideally suited to pull technology, though, because they either lack sufficient bandwidth or display size. In addition, many of these devices do not have convenient input interfaces.
In response, many attempts have been made at a feasible “push” technology by which a network provider uses a static user profile to select information to send to the client. The problem with these attempts was that the instantaneous interests of the client often differed from that suggested by the static profile, and any attempt to compensate by increasing the range of information sent leaves the client feeling overwhelmed by marginally relevant content.
A refined approach has been to employ the use of “intelligent agents” to retrieve specific information requested by the user. With this approach a client requests information such as the departure time and gate number of an airline flight for which the client has a ticket. The agent software then “scrapes” web sites to retrieve this information. Unfortunately, even this limited approach has significant drawbacks in that the client must register a specific request for each piece of data to be tracked. Further, the agent must make a significant commitment to maintenance because changes in the layout of web pages or format of the data may render the agent software incapable of retrieving the requested information. Finally, if a client has multiple Internet devices, e.g. an alphanumeric pager, a “palm pilot”, and a personal computer, such a system lacks the capability of determining the optimal device through which to convey the requested information.
What is desired, therefore, is a system for delivering network content to a mobile Internet device that is highly relevant to the client, that is indifferent to the particular format in which the data is stored, and is sensitive to the routine of the client so that desired information will be transmitted through the optimal Internet-enabled device.